Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine

Tuskegee University is an independent and state-related institution of higher education. Its programs serve a student body that is coeducational as well as racially, ethnically and religiously diverse. With a strong orientation toward disciplines which highlight the relationship between education and work force preparation in the sciences, professions and technical areas, Tuskegee University also emphasizes the importance of the liberal arts as a foundation for successful careers in all areas. Accordingly, all academic majors stress the mastery of a required core of liberal arts courses.

Tuskegee University is located in Tuskegee, Alabama, which is 40 miles east of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, and 20 miles west of the city of Auburn, Alabama. It is also within easy driving distance to the cities of Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia.

The academic programs are organized into five Colleges: (1) The College of Agricultural, Environmental and Natural Sciences; (2) The College of Business and Information Science; (3) The College of Engineering, Architecture, and Physical Sciences; (4) The College of Liberal Arts and Education; and (5) The College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health. The curricula for the five colleges currently offer 49 degrees including 39 Bachelor’s, 13 Master’s, 2 Doctor's of Philosophy: one in Materials Science and Engineering, and one in Integrative BioSciences, and the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

Graduate instruction leading to the Master’s degree and Doctor of Philosophy Degree is offered in three of the five colleges.

The University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS); and the following programs are accredited by national agencies: Architecture, Business, Education, Engineering, Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Work, and Veterinary Medicine. Of special note is the fact that Tuskegee University is the only independent, historically black university with four engineering programs that are nationally accredited by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), the major accrediting body for the engineering sciences. Also, Tuskegee University’s Chemistry program is one of only a few among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) that is approved by the American Chemical Society. Furthermore, the Dietetics Program is approved by the American Dietetic Association and the Food Science Program is approved by the Institute of Food Technologists.

Tuskegee University was the first black college to be designated as a Registered National Historic Landmark (April 2, 1966), and the only black college to be designated a National Historic Site (October 26, 1974), a district administered by the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of Interior.

Special features in Tuskegee University’s program include: The General Daniel "Chappie" James Center for Aerospace Science and Health Education, honoring America’s first black four-star general who was a Tuskegee University graduate, and housing the nation’s only Aerospace Science Engineering program at an HBCU; Media Center, School of Veterinary Medicine, with state-of-the-art video up-link and down-link, intra-school communications, audio/visual, graphics, photography and document production; The Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, a state-of-the-art hotel and meeting facility for educational, business and cultural events; The Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, a distinctive research, teaching and outreach program that addresses issues of ethics and public policy in the treatment of people of color and rural Americans in health care.

Other special features which enhance the educational and cultural environment of the University include: The Booker T. Washington Monument, "Lifting the Veil," which honors the University’s Founder; the George Washington Carver Museum (named for the distinguished scientist who worked at Tuskegee), which preserves the tools and handiwork of Dr. Carver; the Tuskegee Archives, a chief center for information on the challenges, culture and history of Black Americans since 1896; The Tuskegee Airmen’s Plaza, commemorating the historic feats of America’s first black pilots, who were trained at Tuskegee University; The Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Center, and the Center for Continuing Education – a nucleus for continuing adult education.

Over the past 125 years since it was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, Tuskegee University has become one of our nation’s most outstanding institutions of higher learning. While it focuses on helping to develop human resources primarily within the African American community, it is open to all.

Tuskegee’s mission has always been service to people, not education for its own sake. Stressing the need to educate the whole person, that is, the hand and the heart as well as the mind, Dr. Washington’s school was soon acclaimed--first by Alabama and then by the nation for the soundness and vigor of its educational programs and principles. This solid strength has continued through subsequent administrations of the late Drs. Robert Russa Moton (1915-1935), Frederick D. Patterson (1935-1953) and Luther H. Foster (1953-1981). This vitality has been amplified and new luster added during the current administration of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Payton, who assumed responsibility as fifth president of the University on August 1, 1981. It is the current administration which redefined and upgraded Tuskegee from Institute to University status in 1985.

Tuskegee enrolls more than 3,000 students and employs approximately 900 faculty and support personnel. Physical facilities include more than 5,000 acres of forestry and a campus on which sits more than 100 major buildings and structures. Total land, forestry and facilities are valued in excess of $500 million

History of Tuskegee University

Welcome to Tuskegee University- "the pride of the swift, growing south." Founded in a one room shanty, near Butler Chapel AME Zion Church, thirty adults represented the first class - Dr. Booker T. Washington the first teacher. The founding date was July 4, 1881, authorized by House Bill 165.

We should give credit to George Campbell, a former slave owner, and Lewis Adams, a former slave, tinsmith and community leader, for their roles in the founding of the University. Adams had not had a day of formal education but could read and write. In addition to being a tinsmith, he was also a shoemaker and harness-maker. And he could well have been experienced in other trades. W. F. Foster was a candidate for re-election to the Alabama Senate and approached Lewis Adams about the support of African-Americans in Macon County.

What would Adams want, Foster asked, in exchange for his (Adams) securing the black vote for him (Foster). Adams could well have asked for money, secured the support of blacks voters and life would have gone on as usual. But he didn’t. Instead, Adams told Foster he wanted an educational institution - a school - for his people. Col. Foster carried out his promise and with the assistance of his colleague in the House of Representatives, Arthur L. Brooks, legislation was passed for the establishment of a "Negro Normal School in Tuskegee."

A $2,000 appropriation, for teachers’ salaries, was authorized by the legislation. Lewis Adams, Thomas Dryer, and M. B. Swanson formed the board of commissioners to get the school organized. There was no land, no buildings, no teachers only State legislation authorizing the school. George W. Campbell subsequently replaced Dryer as a commissioner. And it was Campbell, through his nephew, who sent word to Hampton Institute in Virginia looking for a teacher.

Booker T. Washington got the nod and he made the Lewis Adams dream happen. He was principal of the school from July 4, 1881, until his death in 1915. He was not 60 years old when he died. Initial space and building for the school was provided by Butler Chapel AME Zion Church not far from this present site. Not long after the founding, however, the campus was moved to "a 100 acre abandoned plantation" which became the nucleus of the present site.

Tuskegee rose to national prominence under the leadership of its founder, Dr. Washington, who headed the institution from 1881 until his death at age 59 in 1915. During his tenure, institutional independence was gained in 1892, again through legislation, when Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute was granted authority to act independent of the state of Alabama.

Dr. Washington, a highly skilled organizer and fund-raiser, was counsel to American Presidents, a strong advocate of Negro business, and instrumental in the development of educational institutions throughout the South. He maintained a lifelong devotion to his institution and to his home - the South. Dr. Washington is buried on the campus of Tuskegee University near the University Chapel.

Robert R. Moton was president of Tuskegee from 1915 to 1935. Under his leadership, the Tuskegee Veteran’s Administration Hospital was created on land donated by the Institute. The Tuskegee V.A. Hospital , opened in 1923, was the first and only staffed by Black professionals. Dr. Moton was succeeded in 1935 by Dr. Frederick D. Patterson. Dr. Patterson oversaw the establishment of the School of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee . Today, nearly 75 percent of Black veterinarians in America are Tuskegee graduates.

Dr. Patterson also brought the Tuskegee Airmen flight training program to the Institute. The all-Black squadrons of Tuskegee Airmen were highly decorated World War II combat veterans and forerunners of the modern day Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Patterson is also credited with founding the United Negro College Fund, which to date has raised more than $1 billion for student aid. Dr. Luther H. Foster became president of Tuskegee Institute in 1953.

Dr. Foster led Tuskegee through the transformational years of the Civil Rights Movement. Student action, symbolized by student martyr and SNCC member Sammy Younge, as well as legal action represented by Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960), attests to Tuskegee ’s involvement in The Movement.

Current President, Dr. Benjamin F. Payton, began his tenure in 1981. Under his leadership, the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care and the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site were launched. The General Daniel " Chappie " James Center for Aerospace Science and Health Education was constructed - the largest athletic arena in the SIAC. The Kellogg Conference Center , one of 12 worldwide, was completed as a renovation and expansion of historic Dorothy Hall.

Tuskegee attained University status in 1985 and has since begun offering its first doctoral programs in integrative biosciences and materials science and engineering. The College of Business and Information Sciences was established and professionally accredited, and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Physical Sciences was expanded to include the only Aerospace Engineering department at an HBCU.

At the time of Washington’s death, there were 1,500 students, a $2 million endowment, 40 trades, (we would call them majors today), 100 fully-equipped buildings, and about 200 faculty. From 30 adult students in a one room shanty, we have today grown to more than 3,000 students on a campus (the main campus, farm and forest land) that includes some 5,000 acres and more than 70 buildings.

Dedicated in 1922, the Booker T. Washington Monument, called "Lifting the Veil," stands at the center of campus. The inscription at its base reads, "He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry." For Tuskegee , the process of unveiling is continuous and lifelong.